Those Queer Animals: Queer Liberation and Fat-Positive Veganism

We begin by saying goodbye to Alison – no, she’s not leaving the show, but heading off on a vegan vacation. The goodbyes are short, as we quickly delve into the tofu of this show. Have you ever wondered how food relates to sexuality, gender, and the body? Well, today we discuss what it means to come out, become, and be a queer vegan. Sounds like some pretty sexy stuff. Alongside queer animals, we chat about issues of body shaming within the vegan community and a fat positive veganism looks like. It all sounds very tasty!

Sexual Liberation is Animal Liberation

Queer Vegans Make Love Better

“Hiding our sexuality can mean hiding our romantic feelings, sexual identity or relationships from those close to us. It can also mean refraining from acting on our sexual desires out of fear, or perhaps denying to ourselves the acknowledgement that we even have desires for experiences with other members of the same gender… Patterns such as these can reveal themselves in our relationship with food.” – Sarah Brown.

Within the queer movement, there is a fight the ability and right of people to express themselves sexually in the way that is right for them. How is this struggle for sexuality related to the struggle for animal liberation?Similarly, how is the queer body connected to the nonhuman body that queer vegans choose not to consume, wear, or use?

On today’s show we talk with Sarah Brown, author of the popular blog Queer Vegan Food. Sarah works at the exciting and unexamined intersection of queer sexuality and veganism. We will chat with her about what it means to be a queer vegan and how veganism and queerness relate. Sarah has published numerous articles on this subject, and is also currently working on a book with Courtney Pool on holistic health for women who love women. We are very excited to hear what she has to say.

Those Fat Vegans: Fat-Phobia and the Vegan Community

PETA's Fat-Phobic Advertising

What is fat-phobia and sizism? Many of us internalize a hatred of our bodies to such an extreme degree that we often commit violence onto our bodies whether through intensive dieting or surgery.

To many of us it is not surprising that the vegan community is fat phobia.This is not just the problem of a few bad apples, but an institutionalized problem with large organizations like PETA and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. How is it that fat shaming and body policing is a structural component of vegan advocacy?

Our second interview features Christa Treuman, a member of Fat Panic! Vancouver – an alliance of people of all sizes who are committed to ending the oppression of fat people, and to working towards a society in which no one is taught to hate their own or anyone else’s body, for any reason.

Christa is a vegan and also a fat-positive activist. We chat with her about fat shaming and body policing within the vegan community and how to respect and love our differently sized bodies by supporting people of all sizes as we make our own choices relating to health, all the while avoiding the notion that there is a moral obligation to strive for any particular conception of ‘health.’